LISNews: Librarian News

JET writes "Interesting One From CA: " To have a library fine of $1,505 - the amount Amy N. Smith owes the Stockton-San Joaquin County Public Library - requires an uncommon appetite for books or videos, and also a forgetful, crooked or oblivious state of mind.

Smith, of Hayward, said she was "screwed up" - bipolar and without medication - when she borrowed "a ton" of DVDs from the library last year. Now healthy, she said she does not "seem to have them" but will pay her bill.

Her $1,505 debt, having grown at $2 per DVD per day, is more than anyone else owes the library, according to a record the library provided in response to a California Public Records Act request. The database that includes Smith's fine and others changes when someone pays or builds debt. But the day it was produced last month, 32,185 different people owed a total of $626,196.